I generally don't comment on child abuse stories that are about child sexual abuse, because my mission is to bring attention to emotional and physical child abuse. However the following story is so outlandish, it begged for comment.

The Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape (PCAR) was denied a 30-second public service announcement on Philadelphia's WBEB 101.1FM radio station because the organizations name includes the word “rape” and the public service announcement included the phrase “Child Sexual Abuse.

WBEB management suggested the organization remove the word rape from their name and the word “sexual” from the phrase “child sexual abuse” because it is their belief that their listeners would be upset by those words. I'm not sure what world the management of this station lives in, but I find this reasoning quite insincere from a station that plays sexually suggestive music from artists such as Madonna, George Michael, Prince and Lady GaGa. These words are spoken every day on all forms of media, including the newspapers across the country.

By not talking about child sexual abuse, the message the perpetrators gets is, “Don't worry, it's unlikely you'll get caught because people don't like to talk about such distasteful crimes.” And even worse than that, it isolates victims and creates an atmosphere where they are less likely to come forward. Shame on WBEB. If you would like to express your opinion to WBEB's management, call 610-667-840.